A new Slumbrew brewery in Somerville

Share via e-mail

Somerville Brewing Co. has found a home for a new brewery in the city for which it’s named. The makers of Slumbrew beer have signed a lease on a space that will house a brewery and tap room expected to be in operation as soon as October.

“We’re really trying to create an experience for people, a destination where people can interact with our vision for craft beer,” says Jeff Leiter, Slumbrew’s co-founder.

At the new space at 15 Ward St., Slumbrew will have the capacity to brew 2,500 barrels. Currently, it contract-brews all of its beers at Mercury Brewing in Ipswich. Slumbrew will continue to brew most of its beer in Ipswich even after the new space opens.

In addition to increasing brewing capacity, approximately 1,500 square feet of the new home will be devoted to the tap room. At any given time patrons will be able to get samples or full pints of 10 to 12 brews, including test batches that might never reach stores.

“It’s an absolutely critical extension of the brand,” says Leiter, who stresses that he and Caitlin Jewell, his wife and company cofounder, live in Somerville and are raising children there. “For us to have an actual location where people can come see us is absolutely clutch.”

The couple spent months finding the right space in Somerville; given the branding they refused to look anywhere else. They wanted something pragmatic enough for people to get to while meeting the industrial requirements of a working brewery. The tap room is something they’re particularly excited about.

“We’re looking for that Colorado or Southern California tap room vibe that’s coming to Massachusetts,” says Jewell. “It’s a small space that we’re going to maximize.”

Jewell says she hopes to be part of a burgeoning metro-Boston brewery scene that includes Everett’s Night Shift and Idle Hands breweries, Chelsea’s Mystic Brewery, and Harpoon’s brewery on the South Boston waterfront. She added, “It’s really important to bring those tourism dollars to Somerville.”

A Boston Marathon brew

Boston Beer Co. is sponsoring the Boston Marathon for the third time, and for the third year in a row it is brewing a Samuel Adams beer specifically for the race.

Samuel Adams 26.2 brew is named for the miles that runners complete on their journey from Hopkinton to the Back Bay. It’s a brew of the Gose style, an unfiltered wheat beer that “offers a lighter body with a slightly lower alcohol level (4.5 percent) than many of our other styles, and is fitting for those either running in the race or cheering on their favorite runners on race day,” according to a Boston Beer press release.

After last year’s bombings, Boston Beer committed to giving 100 percent of the profits from the sale of the 26.2 brew to the Greg Hill Foundation, for the needs of survivors and their families. All proceeds from the sale of the beer this year will also go to the foundation. Several bombing victims and their families were invited to Samuel Adams’s Jamaica Plain brewery to make one of the first batches of the beer.

My sample of 26.2 pours a hazy yellow with a big, fluffy white head. I smell banana, lemon, and hay. This is decidedly a spring-summer beer, heavy on citrus and wheat with a sweet finish.

Samuel Adams does these kinds of beers really well; this one is sure to please everyday beer drinkers. It’s available on draft for a limited time and will be served at select bars and restaurants along the race course.

Roads to try out

Two Roads Brewing Co. of Stratford, Conn., has signed a distribution agreement with the the Massachusetts Beverage Alliance to distribute in the state starting April 28. Two Roads, whose name is inspired by Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” started brewing in 2012. Former Pabst Blue Ribbon marketing director Brad Hittle is Two Roads’ CEO. Year-round releases from the brewery include Ol’ Factory Pils, Road 2 Ruin Double IPA, and No Limits Hefeweizen.